


By the rice fields

by MonsterMince



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged Up, M/M, spooky-lite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:00:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24710458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonsterMince/pseuds/MonsterMince
Summary: An annoying trip to a run-down village to collect his estranged grandfather's ashes turns complicated, when Kyoutani is possessed by a spirit. And Iwaizumi, who he hasn't seen for two years, is there to help, which makes everything worse (better).
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Kyoutani Kentarou
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	By the rice fields

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love Iwakyou, and wanted to take a swing and writing something somewhat spooky. Hope you enjoy.

The bus dropped him off at a stop that looked like it was one rainstorm away from collapsing in on itself. Yet the structure of rusted metal was large, enough to fit a small classroom of preschoolers, and papered all along its back with weathered newspapers that had faded to sickly yellow and browns from the sun and rain. 

Kyoutani gave it one derisive look, and then set off along the sole path that the bus stop ran along. His grandfather, recently deceased, lived -- had lived -- in a tiny village at the foot of a small mountain. The town survived from the rice fields that were nourished by the natural flow of water from the mountain, but rice production wasn’t so great that the village was able to export any of their rice to other towns. Maybe the few villages near them, for those who had small trucks to drive along the dirt paths. 

The sun colored the sky with a nauseating, bright glow of the afternoon, and the shadows of the rice in the fields stretched slowly and gently. They pointed in the direction of the village. Kyoutani pulled up the neck of his t-shirt to wipe at the sweat beading on his upper lip. 

He didn’t want to be here. He had never even known his grandfather; his grandparents had separated when his dad was a kid, and his mother’s family had cut off all communication with the man who had apparently done something so shameful that his pregnant wife had taken her firstborn and left one day. Just like that. 

But Kyoutani was the one who lived the closest to the village, an hour by train and a little less than that by bus to approach the mountain, whereas his parents were still back in Miyagi. 

He also knew that his dad was afraid to come here. Kyoutani had no reservations or feelings to weigh him down, and only an annoyed fury that he’d had to spend the two days he got off from work coming here, instead of resting. His shoulder still ached a little from the lifting he’d done last week at the construction site. 

He gave it a small rub as he kicked at a stone alongside the road. It skittered down the small slope that hemmed the path in, and Kyoutani heard the faint, dull clack of it as it rebounded off of another stone down there. The road was deathly quiet, only the soft shuffle of dirt with each step he took, and the occasional angry huffs from his own throat. From here, he could see the distant, small structures of thatched-roof houses, and cars parked beside them. It was just what Kyoutani expected of a tiny village where everyone breathed frugality and were understated artists of making every purchase last longer than a lifespan.

In the pocket of his track bottoms was the note that he’d jotted down, as his dad had given him directions to find his grandfather’s old house. The notice of his passing had gone to the local office, who’d then traced the official records to Kyoutani’s father. His grandfather had nothing to leave to his son; the land that he lived on had been defaulted back to the government, and he’d died with debts to settle. There were only his ashes and a suitcase full of personal possessions that Kyoutani’s father had requested be held for him to retrieve -- or rather, for Kyoutani. 

Kyoutani carried with him a travel pack that held an incense burner and a few sticks as well, to pay his respects at his grandfather’s grave. _That_ was both of his parent’s wishes, and Kyoutani felt as irritated as he had on his graduation day about how their type of sentimentality involved dragging Kyoutani into things that he really would rather not get involved with. 

The suitcase was waiting for him at the only inn in the dilapidated village, but Kyoutani trudged past it and walked up a long, gradual slope. He wanted to see the house first and get the prayers out of the way, so he could just grab the suitcase and leave afterwards. 

The houses spaced out asymmetrically along both sides of the hill, which Kyoutani actually liked to see. Tokyo was a little too perfect, everything designed to fit as many people into as small a space as possible. Those were all the projects that he worked on. But here, it was as if every house had staked its claim on different amounts of land, every yard lopsided in its own way, even though they looked all the same -- dry, light dirt with puddles of darker mud caked where rain had fallen, and rocks and stray clumps of grass and weeds growing. These were yards that were just too much trouble to maintain, even though many households had healthy plants potted closer to the edges of the houses themselves, and in the deeply-set windowsills. 

His grandfather’s house was situated at the end of the path that the hill diverged at. Kyoutani counted four other houses on the path as he made his way down, each one with large, knobbled and gnarled trees and stumps that clustered together to plunge the road into a cooling shade. A small, cute dog ran up to him in one of the front yards of the house two doors down from his grandfather’s. It barked, once, and put its paws up between the wire fencing, but then just watched Kyoutani with large eyes, its tail wagging in excitement behind it. 

No one else came to see what it was barking at, and Kyoutani was glad. The last thing that he wanted to do was to be accosted by well-wishing or gossiping neighbors. 

There was an official barricade set up along the driveway to his grandfather’s house, and Kyoutani jumped over the wire chain easily to head up to the front of the house. The porch was old but quaint, made entirely of wood along with the rest of the house. Kyoutani could see a spot on the left side of the porch where the wood was just a little fainter in color, like a rocking chair or other outdoor furniture had been set up. 

He walked over to the spot, standing there and looking out at the long stretch of the path that he’d walked to arrive here. Trees flanked his view, and he turned to peer around the side of the house and into what he could see of the backyard. There were even more trees there: tall, thick, towering ones, with overlapping branches dense enough to nearly block out the sun that was sinking behind them. It was less that the trees were a part of their surroundings, and more that they made the environment around them. Twigs had fallen to tangle into dried bushes that were interspersed between the trees, and Kyoutani felt a small twinge in his chest. 

It was almost a shame that the house couldn’t be passed down in their family. He liked its location: perfectly out of the way, and private. 

He looked up the trees for another moment, scanning idly and wondering if he could pick out a bird’s nest within, before he turned away and went to try the front door. It was locked, as he’d suspected. 

His original plan had been to just knock the door in, or pry off some of the planks that had been haphazardly hammered across the sliding screen doors to block trespassing. Now though, having seen the backyard, Kyoutani decided that it would be the easiest -- and therefore the best -- place to set up the makeshift memorial service. His dad could give his grandfather a proper one with his urn back home. 

The grass grew in patches around the unkempt backyard, healthy because of the shade that protected it from the scorching sun in the summers. At the edges of the yard grew vegetables; those and the worn path between the grass, that led from the back of the house to the row of bushes and trees at the other end of the yard, told a clear story of where his grandfather had spent his time out here. 

Kyoutani took the incense holder from his bag and set it on the old step that led up to the back of the house. With two sticks of incense slowly drifting tendrils of smoke up from it, Kyoutani put his hands together and bowed his head. 

His parents had a large family on both sides, and so he’d been to enough memorials and services that it was easy for him to just kneel there in silence, mind blank as he waited for the incense to burn down. He kneeled there, paying respects to a man he'd never known. 

The air around him was cool from the shade of the trees at his back, and he heard the quiet creaking of the old wooden house. It was quiet and relaxing in a way that it never was in the city, even when he went out on runs at night. Kyoutani let out a slower, longer breath. 

His feet pushed up from the ground, and he stood. 

He stood without thinking of standing. 

His right foot took a step forward. And then his left. Kyoutani felt an icy chill of shock grip him. He wasn’t the one moving. Something was moving him. 

He thrashed. He tried to throw a punch, but his arms stayed by his side. His shoulders didn’t hunch or seize. 

His mouth didn’t move when he tried to yell. 

Kyoutani didn’t know what was happening, only that he was trapped in his own body as it walked and then started to run around the side of his grandfather’s house. 

And then his mouth opened, and his vocal chords squeezed out words that he would never have said on his own, in a tone and tenor that was more panicked and anguished than Kyoutani had ever sounded. 

“Minato! Minato, come back --” 

He was sprinting now, as if charging towards the front of the house. 

No, past it. His body hurtled past the empty porch, and down the driveway. Kyoutani’s arms moved now, to raise his hands and form them into claws. He could only watch, helpless, as he saw them grasp at the air, clenching in and out. The dried, fallen leaves broke under his feet. 

He felt fear clawing in his stomach, something in his mind thinking that it looked like he was trying to strangle someone -- 

There was a sudden squealing of brakes as two bright beams of light shone onto him, and Kyoutani took a ragged breath. 

Of his own volition. 

His body was his again. 

He looked down at his hands, and saw the tan skin and thick, callused fingers and palms shaking up at him. 

The door to the car that had nearly hit him swung open, and the driver pushed himself out, swearing. 

“Fuck -- fuck, sorry, are you all right?!” 

Kyoutani ignored the person, and lowered his hands to fist them in the front of his track bottoms, as he hunched over a little. His eyes stared wide and unfocused at the ground before him. His mind raced, trying to understand what had just happened. 

“Hey -- you… _Kyoutani?_ ” 

Kyoutani’s head jerked up at his name, and he saw a face that he hadn’t seen for two years staring worriedly at him from over the open car door. 

He had probably tripped somewhere and hit his head and was now hallucinating, because there was no fucking way that Iwaizumi Hajime was here in this sleepy little nowhere village, looking at him. 

Staring at Iwaizumi, Kyoutani loosened his fists and raised both hands up to slap himself on his cheeks. The cracking sound of his palms against his face made Iwaizumi startle. His thick eyebrows flew up high on his forehead, and Kyoutani’s gaze didn’t waver from his. 

Iwaizumi was still standing there. 

“I think that’s the weirdest way that anyone’s ever reacted to seeing me again,” Iwaizumi offered after a few seconds, his tone careful.

Kyoutani flipped him off with both stinging hands. 

For some dumb reason, that seemed to relax Iwaizumi, who tipped his head back and laughed, before looking back at Kyoutani with a small grin on his face. 

“Oh yeah, that’s you alright.” 

“Fuck off,” Kyoutani grumbled under his breath. “The fuck’re you doing here?” 

Iwaizumi folded his arms over his car door, and the pose was so casual that Kyoutani felt himself exhale in a small shudder. A minute ago, someone had been in his body against his will, had been controlling and moving him, and now Iwaizumi was looking like it was perfectly normal for two old teammates to be chatting as it got dark around them. Had Kyoutani hallucinated the last few minutes? That wasn’t like him. 

“Road trip,” Iwaizumi answered Kyoutani. Then his eyes narrowed. 

“What’s going on, Kyoutani? You look… Shaken.” 

Kyoutani snarled outright at that. He wasn’t _scared_. 

Iwaizumi didn’t look cowed or impressed, though, and stared evenly back at Kyoutani. He even raised his eyebrows slightly. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“No,” Kyoutani spit out. He could still feel his limbs trembling, and he didn’t know if he wanted to move, or risk finding out that he wasn’t in control of them again. 

Iwaizumi watched him quietly for another few moments. Kyoutani felt his ears start to redden under that scrutiny. He’d always wanted Iwaizumi’s attention to kick his ass in all their challenges, but he hated when the other guy looked at him like he had ‘hidden depths’ or whatever to figure out. 

“Okay,” Iwaizumi finally said, his tone agreeable but firm. At least there wasn’t any pity. 

“Let’s get out of here then. I’m heading back down to the inn. Are you coming?”

Kyoutani looked back over his shoulder at the house. It didn’t look or feel any different than it had when he’d first approached, but Kyoutani also knew better than to shrug off whatever had happened. No way was he sticking around. 

“Fine,” he grunted, and stalked over to the passenger door to open it and slump inside. 

He was stubbornly nonverbal on the short drive back down the hills to the inn, and Iwaizumi seemed to have accepted that far too easily. Or maybe he was just really focused on navigating his car in the dark, in case any other people jumped out in front of it. 

At the inn, the young girl at the front desk, who looked like she was barely in high school, smiled at him and Iwaizumi. 

“Good evening! Welcome.” 

“Good evening,” Iwaizumi greeted, and before Kyoutani could open his mouth, he said: 

“We’d like a two-bed room, please.” 

Kyoutani stepped hard down on Iwaizumi’s foot, but Iwaizumi just clenched his jaw a little, and yanked his foot away to kick Kyoutani’s shin. 

Kyoutani shut his jaw, and felt a scrawl of heat burst over his cheeks. Fuck. Two years, and it was still like this with Iwaizumi. 

Iwaizumi gave their names to the girl, and her smile collapsed as she looked at Kyoutani, and gave him a bow. 

“Ah, Kyoutani-san. I know it’s not my place to say, but I please accept my condolences. On behalf of the entire village.” 

She stumbled a little over ‘condolences,’ and Kyoutani and Iwaizumi bit their cheek at the same time over the young kid who seemed so serious about repeating the words she’d been instructed to say correctly. 

Kyoutani merely gave her a stiff nod. Undeterred, she reached under the desk to solemnly set his grandfather’s suitcase and urn in front of him. Kyoutani darted a glance over at Iwaizumi, just in time to see his old teammate’s eyes widen a little in understanding now. 

Iwaizumi was quiet as they reached the room, and started to get settled in. For Iwaizumi, it meant setting out his toiletries and a change of clothes, and for Kyoutani, it meant realizing that he’d left his pack -- or more like his body had been _yanked away from it_ \-- in his grandfather’s backyard. Iwaizumi seemed to realize this as well, because he called out: 

“Heads up.” 

Kyoutani looked up from shoving his grandfather’s suitcase between the wall and the radiator, to catch the sweats that Iwaizumi lobbed over to him. They were heather grey and warm to the touch, and had what must have been the logo of Iwaizumi’s university on it. 

“Extra toothbrush in the bathroom too,” Iwaizumi added. 

Kyoutani just turned his back to Iwaizumi and deliberately, without letting himself feel any kind of self-consciousness, stripped off his jacket and shirt, and pulled down his pants to put on the sweats. He turned around, to see that Iwaizumi had slipped into the bathroom. 

Jaw clenched hard, he refused to feel disappointed that the other guy hadn’t stuck around to make eyes at Kyoutani’s back that was probably definitely more jacked than Iwaizumi’s, thanks. Kyoutani bunched his clothes up and put them in a pile on the chair at the small table across from his bed, next to the door. Iwaizumi had taken the bed closest to the bathroom. 

The man walked out shirtless as well a few minutes later, his hair damp from the shower that Kyoutani had heard running. Kyoutani was leaning propped up against the headboard of his bed, with the pillows shoved up against his back, and slowly pulling each finger in towards his palms. As he tested the flex of each, his thoughts tumbled uncomfortably over what his hands had looked like, involuntarily grabbing at the air. Grabbing at Minato. 

His grandmother’s name had been Minato. 

“Hey.” 

Kyoutani looked up at the sound of Iwaizumi’s voice, to see Iwaizumi taking a seat on his own bed. The guy crossed his legs, the muscle of his calves bulging against his thick thighs, which were bare because Iwaizumi apparently slept only in boxer briefs. Kyoutani stubbornly looked over Iwaizumi’s shoulder. 

He noticed that the guy’s back was broader than Kyoutani’s, and thought, fuck this. 

His gaze burned holes into his glowering reflection from beyond the bathroom door that Iwaizumi had left open. 

“So,” Iwaizumi said, filling up the dead air. 

“If you say you’re sorry, I’ll knock your teeth out,” Kyoutani swore quietly. 

Iwaizumi held up his hands in front of his chest. 

“Wasn’t going to.” He folded his arms across his chest. 

“I never would’ve expected to run into you here, of all places,” he said instead, his tone purposefully light, even though his eyes were the same dark and steady ones that he’d always looked at Kyoutani with. 

“I didn’t even see you at your own graduation.” 

Kyoutani gave him a sharp look. 

“You were there?” 

Iwaizumi returned it with a flat stare. 

“Is that surprising? You were all my teammates.” 

Kyoutani looked away, this time right at Iwaizumi’s shoulder. 

“I only went so my mom could take some pictures,” he finally muttered after a few seconds of deciding if trying to have a conversation with Iwaizumi was the second good deed that he was doing here in this village. 

“I left right after that.” 

“Yeah? I should’ve known,” Iwaizumi chuckled. “And now? What’re you up to?” 

Kyoutani squared his jaw, and started to pick at the worn threading of the comforter he was sitting on, starting at the corner of a square in the pattern. 

“Iwaizumi. Are you trying to know me?” 

That got him another laugh from Iwaizumi, slow and smooth like the honey that Kyoutani ate his pancakes with. 

“Maybe I am? What’re you going to do about that?” He grinned at Kyoutani. 

Kyoutani stared at him for a moment, eyes narrowed and hard frown on his face, before he turned sharply onto his side, his back to Iwaizumi. He turned his head to look pointedly back over his shoulder. 

“Ok, I get it,” Iwaizumi sighed.

Kyoutani watched him uncross his legs and shift around on the bed, to lean over its side and unzip the small front pocket of his bag. He pulled out a few energy bars, and sat back up, tossing one onto Kyoutani’s bed as he unwrapped one of his own. 

“Do you want a ride to the nearest train station tomorrow?” He asked. The offer and fact that he hadn’t goaded Kyoutani or pressed further was surprising. 

“I’m making my way slowly back to Tokyo, so I’m up for any detours.” 

Silent for a few moments, Kyoutani said gruffly, “I’m in Tokyo now too.” 

Iwaizumi bit into his bar. 

“Yeah? Cool. I could give you a ride back the whole way then.” 

Kyoutani clenched his hands tightly in fists. Iwaizumi was the last person who he wanted to come across as hysteric to, but… There was no one else, and Kyoutani wasn’t stupid. Something had happened, something that had too many signs that pointed to his family, and he couldn’t just ignore that. He also wasn’t going to do the stupid thing and go back alone. At least Iwaizumi was one of the more sensible people he knew. 

Slowly, he sat back up, and turned to face Iwaizumi. 

“Before that. I need to go back to my granddad’s house.” 

“Sure,” Iwaizumi agreed readily. The way he was looking at Kyoutani, however, seemed like he knew that the blond man had more to say. 

Kyoutani scraped his thumbnail against the flat of his other thumbnail, and asked: 

“Do you believe in spirits?” 

The room was quiet for a moment, before Iwaizumi nodded slowly. 

“I’ve...never come across any myself, but I don’t know what I don’t know. I’ve got a couple of mediums and priests on my mom’s side of the family. You grow up hearing...stories.” 

Kyoutani gave a sharp jerk of his head, in a rough nod. 

“I think my grandfather’s still there. He, or something… Took me over today. When you found me.” He looked down at his hands.

He’d dug his fingernails so hard into his palms that he could see the skin around his fingertips turning white. 

“I think it’s dangerous. It kept saying my grandmother’s name, and acting like it wanted to strangle her.” 

Iwaizumi’s expression was serious, but nothing more condemning than that. 

“What do you want to do about that?” he asked. “A purifying ritual?” 

“Don’t know how.” 

Iwaizumi crumpled the wrapper of his energy bar, and threw it into the wastebin in the corner of the room. 

“The fact that it took you over -- Kyoutani, that’s dangerous shit. Who knows what could happen to you if you go back there?” 

“I know,” Kyoutani bristled, his shoulders hunching. Then they fell a little. 

“But I have to try something.”

“Ok,” Iwaizumi said, with a nod, pausing more like he was thinking over something, than judging Kyoutani. He swung his legs off of the bed and stood, to go to his jacket thrown over his suitcase and pull out his phone. 

“I’ll call my grandma and ask what she knows about purifying sites, and any other things we could try.”

“ _We_?” Kyoutani asked, eyebrows knitting tightly. His stomach clenched, not badly, about Iwaizumi inviting himself along. 

Iwaizumi looked up from his phone, and gave Kyoutani a grin that was unbearably warm. 

“Of course. Can I come?” 

Kyoutani felt his fingers twitch and his chest constrict for a moment. Maybe his grandfather really could find peace, when Kyoutani knew someone who was a literal fucking saint. 

“Only if you’re not a dumbass and be careful,” he muttered, with more bite than he really meant. “You better not let me choke you or something fucking twisted, if it happens to me again.” 

Iwaizumi walked over to punch Kyoutani’s shoulder warmly. Somehow, the ache that shot through his shoulder was welcome when that guy did it. 

“Please. As if you could pin me long enough to choke me. I’d knock you out before you even could, if it comes down to it.” 

Those words, said so casually and carelessly, had Kyoutani lunging to smack Iwaizumi’s hand away and try to grab his wrist to twist his arm. 

“I’ll show you who I can fucking pin, asshole --” 

Iwaizumi evaded Kyoutani’s lunge, and grabbed Kyoutani’s forearm to pull him down as Kyoutani felt Iwaizumi’s other hand pressing hard between his shoulder blades. Kyoutani strained against the pulling and pushing, but all too soon Iwaizumi had forced him flat against the bed. 

He held Kyoutani until Kyoutani stopped trying to twist and power out of his hold, and then let go. He took a seat back on his own bed, and smirked at Kyoutani in a way that made Kyoutani’s entire face and chest erupt into heat. Glowering, Kyoutani shoved himself up and off the bed, and stalked past Iwaizumi, into the bathroom. Vindictively, he slammed it shut behind him. 

\----

Iwaizumi’s grandmother had given them a few precautions to take, and so the next morning, after checking out and stopping at the grocery store in town to pick up the supplies, Kyoutani watched as Iwaizumi performed a cleansing around the perimeter of the house. They’d decided that Kyoutani should stay off the property until Iwaizumi was finished, just in case. 

When he saw Iwaizumi nod at him, he cautiously stepped away from Iwaizumi’s car and crossed over the blockade and onto the driveway. He hunched, bracing himself for a few seconds. 

When nothing happened, he breathed out a small sigh of relief, and straightened up to join Iwaizumi in the backyard. This time, he put his backpack on securely, before they both kneeled down in front of the incense holder, where the sticks from the day before had burned down. 

“How long did it take after you lit these for it to happen?” Iwaizumi asked, as he watched Kyoutani pull out the old sticks and place two new ones in. 

It was nearly noon, a time when, even though neither of them had said it out loud, they both thought that spirits were least likely to be around. These things just didn’t happen in the light of day, or so they both hoped. 

“Don’t know,” Kyoutani answered with a shake of his head. “I wasn’t paying attention.” 

Kyoutani didn’t know why, but Iwaizumi reached over and gave his thigh a firm squeeze. 

“We’ll help your grandfather.” 

Coming from Iwaizumi, it sounded more like a statement than just an insulting reassurance. 

Kyoutani closed his eyes and took a small breath, letting Iwaizumi’s broad palm fit over his thigh for a few moments more. He would never admit it, but he let the other man keep it there, even while he lit the incense and put his hands together to pray. 

He felt a small pang when Iwaizumi took his hand away to pray as well. 

This time, Kyoutani was hyperaware of Iwaizumi beside him, as they waited. He could hear the faint, quiet breaths that Iwaizumi took, and smell the faint scent of the inn’s lightly scented soap that the man had used this morning. It was relaxing. 

Until it wasn’t. 

Kyoutani, again, didn’t feel the loss of his body until he felt it move against his will. This time, he was slower to stand up, and this time, he turned not towards the edge of the house, but to his left, where Iwaizumi was kneeling. 

Iwaizumi was slowly getting to his feet as well, but there was a strangeness to how he moved that screamed ‘wrong’ to Kyoutani. 

Kyoutani’s mouth opened, and an anguished voice rasped out. 

“Minato… Minato, what have you done?” 

Iwaizumi looked up from his hands to Kyoutani, and his expression was pleading but hard. 

“I had to… Eiji. I’ve seen the way that you look at her.” 

Eiji. His grandfather. Kyoutani didn’t feel better to have that confirmed. The fear was back, this time along with a dread and sickening terror because he had seen how this ended yesterday. He had seen his grandfather -- he had _been_ his grandfather -- chasing his grandmother and trying to strangle her. 

And whatever sick thing this was, was forcing Iwaizumi to act out her part. 

Iwaizumi was still talking, his voice pitched now into a harsh but measured anger. Kyoutani realized with a sickening jolt that tears were trailing down from the corners of Iwaizumi’s eyes.

“Years, Eiji. _Years_. Haven’t I made you happy? I gave you a son. We have another child on the way, but you still want _her_. You still love her.” 

“Minato,” Kyoutani said again, and couldn’t tell if the icy dread was his or his grandfather’s. “What did you do to her?” 

Iwaizumi’s stern, reliable eyes were soft as he raised his hands up to cup Kyoutani’s jaw, and brush back hair that Kyoutani didn’t have behind his ears. The wet tracks on his face were ones that Kyoutani could feel on his own now, his eyes burning without his control. The salty taste of tears was bitter on his mouth. 

“I promise you, dear. She didn’t suffer long.” 

Kyoutani felt hollow, even as his body surged and jerked in response to the anguish and anger in his grandfather. He felt his hands grasp Iwaizumi by his biceps, and he threw Iwaizumi to the ground. 

But Iwaizumi’s bulk instead of Minato’s smaller stature couldn’t compare. Even all of Kyoutani's strength was only enough to make Iwaizumi stumble back a few paces, before he turned and started to run, towards the front of the house. 

The chase was just like yesterday, but this time Kyoutani’s heart was pounding in his chest even harder as he watched his body chase after Iwaizumi’s, his hands aimed right for his old teammate's throat. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to do this. The house loomed dark and silent on his left, and the trees on the other side closed like time did around him, as he reached out for Iwaizumi. 

As soon as Iwaizumi ran across the blockade and the edge of the property, he collapsed as if all of his strings had been cut. Kyoutani’s body jerked to a stop as well, and Kyoutani watched in a panic until Iwaizumi groaned, and slowly pushed himself up on his hands. The older man turned around to look at Kyoutani, and Kyoutani felt an overpowering need to see if Iwaizumi was scared of him now, if he was never going to look or think of Kyoutani the same way again. 

But his body was already whirling away from Iwaizumi, and stumbling now back to the backyard. It was grief that weighed his limbs down now, and Kyoutani thrashed and tried to break out of what was going on, because it should have been over. 

His body staggered past the house, and the incense holder that was shrouded in a thin veil of smoke. His feet dragged down the worn path that cut the patchy yard in two, until he reached the edge of the property, where the trees and bushes grew in tangled knots. Dropping to his knees, Kyoutani’s hands covered his eyes, and he wept. 

He didn’t know how long had passed, before he heard his name. 

“Kyoutani!” 

This time, when he tried to look up, he could. The sun was setting, and the faint, burning light piercing between the trees made Iwaizumi’s tan skin glow, burnished. Iwaizumi was leaning over him, worry etched on his features. Not disgust, but only an apprehension that Kyoutani could understand. 

He opened his mouth and whispered Iwaizumi’s name. Immediately, Iwaizumi grabbed his shoulders and yanked him up for a fierce hug, pressing their chests together and squeezing all of the air out of Kyoutani’s chest. It burned, and Kyoutani welcomed it. 

After a few moments, he pushed at Iwaizumi’s chest, so the man would loosen his grip on him. 

“I can’t be here anymore,” he said to Iwaizumi, not looking at him because he knew the panic would be all too obvious. 

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi said, and his voice was shakier than Kyoutani had ever heard. 

Kyoutani yanked at Iwaizumi’s hand, and even though he’d taken the first few steps, they were both sprinting away, away from the yard and the house and horrible loss and betrayals, until Kyoutani was shaking in Iwaizumi’s car and Iwaizumi wasn’t much better, but determined on driving them far, far away. 

Some spirits weren’t meant to be at peace. 

They were well out of the village, racing down rows and rows of rice fields blanketed in shadows with the sun having set, when Kyoutani suddenly said: 

“Stop the car.” 

Iwaizumi did, easing it to a slow roll, and that was enough for Kyoutani. He yanked open the car door and pushed himself out of the car. Rolling for a few moments, ignoring Iwaizumi’s angry shout, he then pushed himself up to stand. He couldn’t think past the fear and the anger, and the fury. Kyoutani couldn’t separate which feelings were his and which belonged to an old man who had taken advantage of Kyoutani's blood to puppet his body in some grotesque curse of guilt. He was tired and wired and wished that he’d never come to this village, and learned these things about people who weren't even his real family. They were only family in name to him, but now were so deep under his skin that it made Kyoutani want to rip himself apart. 

He felt Iwaizumi touch his shoulder, and the concern in that touch was the final straw. Easier than breathing in that moment, he snapped around and slammed his fist in an uppercut right to Iwaizumi’s jaw. He watched Iwaizumi stagger back, touch his jaw for a moment and look at Kyoutani with a gaze so heavy that Kyoutani felt like he was being smothered. 

Then Iwaizumi took a step forward and sent a right hook crashing right into Kyoutani’s cheek. 

They threw themselves at each other. Kyoutani slugged punches at Iwaizumi’s abdomen and Iwaizumi kicked out to trip Kyoutani to the ground. Kyoutani dragged him down, and scratched and kicked back, until they were a writhing mass, wrestling and raging at each other. Neither of them knew how to talk about what had happened to them, talk about the rot that was the relationship Kyoutani’s grandparents had, and how they knew that the other man brawling in the dirt would never be as bad as that. 

Iwaizumi heaved his torso off of Kyoutani to catch his breath for a moment. From underneath a stinging eyebrow caked with blood, Kyoutani looked up at the older man’s face. Iwaizumi’s bottom lip was split, and his bloody nose was responsible for the other dark streaks of blood across his lips. His cheeks were bruised, probably bleeding on the inside if they were anything like Kyoutani’s right now, and Kyoutani had raked a good set of scratches against his throat. Iwaizumi’s nostrils were flared wide as he breathed heavily and stared down fiercely and intently. Kyoutani wondered what Iwaizumi was waiting for. And then he knew. 

Kyoutani fisted his hands in Iwaizumi’s shirt, and yanked him down, to crush their mouths together. It wasn’t a pretty kiss, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t a good kiss, but fuck you, it was his first, so lay off. He could taste the blood from Iwaizumi’s mouth, as Iwaizumi shoved him down more against the dirt and moved his mouth against Kyoutani’s. Their tongues smashed together, rubbing as Kyoutani struggled to breathe through his bleeding nose. 

He fisted a hand in Iwaizumi’s hair when he broke apart to take a breath, and Iwaizumi made a guttural growl that made Kyoutani immediately grapple his legs around Iwaizumi’s to squeeze him deathly tight. His mouth sealed over Iwaizumi’s again, and he felt Iwaizumi’s hand at his hip, grabbing at him hard, as Iwaizumi started to rock down and grind their hips together.

Kyoutani could feel aches and pain everywhere across his body, but when Iwaizumi started to rub his hard dick against Kyoutani’s, it was as if all of his nerves went numb everywhere else, and raced down to his own dick as it jerked and strained against his underwear. 

“Kyoutani -- fuck,” he heard Iwaizumi pant in his ear, and Kyoutani just turned his head to bite Iwaizumi’s ear and breathe harshly over it as well, as he got his heels dug into the dirt and frotted up against Iwaizumi. 

He won and held out, coming after Iwaizumi did, and would never admit that what set him off was Iwaizumi grinding him down flat against the ground to ride out his orgasm. He came hard, digging his fingernails hard into Iwaizumi’s skin and shirt, as his body locked up until it -- he -- suddenly unwound and lay against the ground, wrung out. 

He could feel his shoulder aching, his mouth stinging at the punches and then kisses that had scraped up his lips, his left knee wasn't going to be able to take a lot of weight for a while -- but he felt a little closer to okay. A small but not insignificant tightness in his chest had unwound from him, slipping out into the trees around them and dark sky above. 

Content, for once, to lie there, depleted, he felt Iwaizumi moving against him. A kiss followed to his temple that made Kyoutani close his eyes to try and ignore the warm ache in his chest, and urge to yank Iwaizumi down for a second round. Iwaizumi seemed to have no such restraint, though, and Kyoutani cracked open an eye to glare as he felt Iwaizumi trying to lift him up. 

“Pretty sure I kicked out your knee,” he said hoarsely, and Iwaizumi laughed. 

Only because Iwaizumi was an invalid because of him did Kyoutani decide to go along with whatever he was trying to do. He felt Iwaizumi plant a hand on his ass, and shot a glare over his shoulder that had Iwaizumi just hovering his face close enough to Kyoutani’s, lips parted just the right amount to make Kyoutani turn stubbornly away, enraged and aroused. 

Iwaizumi boosted Kyoutani up to the roof of his car, and then held a hand up for Kyoutani to roll his eyes at, but deign to drag Iwaizumi up to join him. Iwaizumi flopped to lie down, and wrapped an arm around Kyoutani’s waist, to drag him close until they were both lying down together, heads tilted and touching. Kyoutani looked up at the crisp glow of the stars. 

“I’ve got a first aid kit in my car,” Iwaizumi said, after long minutes had passed between them. 

Nothing he said could have ruined the moment for Kyoutani, who heard what he wasn’t saying, and knocked his head lightly against Iwaizumi’s.

“We need to go back.” 

“Yeah,” Iwaizumi agreed, without even needing a moment’s hesitation to think about it. Now that the fear and helplessness was pushed out, Kyoutani had a hunch of what this had really been about, and he suspected that Iwaizumi did as well. 

\-----

Iwaizumi drove them back to Tokyo first, taking twice as long as it would have if his leg didn’t ache from having to press down on the gas pedal. Back to Kyoutani’s apartment where they patched themselves up and Iwaizumi mock-threatened to file down Kyoutani’s teeth, with a heated lick to his own lips. 

They slept, showered, and ate, before Iwaizumi pulled out his phone and opened it up to his camera roll. He slid his phone across the table for Kyoutani to watch the video he’d recorded. 

“When you were -- when Eiji was controlling you,” Iwaizumi said, looking down at Kyoutani’s hand with his bruised knuckles and flaking black nail polish holding his phone, “The place you stopped at. We warded the house, but not the yard, so it had me thinking…” 

Kyoutani watched as Iwaizumi pointed the camera downwards as he pushed the bushes to step through. He didn’t walk far until he came across a small plot of land with a grave marker and small vase of fresh flowers, only slightly wilted now that the man who had routinely changed them out for over 40 years was dead. 

“He hid her,” Kyoutani said quietly. The video confirmed what he’d thought was most likely. 

“And stayed with her.” Iwaizumi touched his fingers against his cup of steaming hot tea, something that had Kyoutani wondering if it was a habit that he could make fun of Iwaizumi for doing. 

He was keen on staying around long enough to find out. 

“He could’ve come clean that my grandmother did it,” Kyoutani said. “But he didn’t. Why. To protect her?” 

“Maybe,” Iwaizumi agreed. “She had his two kids to take care of.” 

Kyoutani’s jaw was hard, unforgiving. 

“So he hid her, because he wouldn’t get my grandmother in trouble, but he also wasn’t going to go down for the crime.” 

Iwaizumi rested his chin in his hand, and Kyoutani felt the bastard slide his foot against his under the table. He stepped hard on Iwaizumi’s foot. 

“Do you think that’s selfish?” Iwaizumi asked, although he had a grin on his face and was giving Kyoutani a heated look. 

Kyoutani gave Iwaizumi a withering glare, and took a few moments to really think. Then he just answered with what his gut sense had been. 

“I don’t really care. I didn’t know the guy. He's just an asshole whose guilt’s fucked us up for a while. So he’s lucky I’m even going to tell the officials that we ‘found’ what looks suspiciously like a grave on his property, so she can get properly laid to rest or whatever.” 

Iwaizumi looked both like he was actively choking on something, and also a moment away from laughing. He stood up from the table, to lean over and grab Kyoutani by the chin to kiss him. Their fractured noses pressed painfully against each other’s. 

“Ok, I get it. Now give me your number and go call them.”


End file.
